Air cleaning attachment for vacuum cleaners



March 27, 1956 L. A. EVANS 2,739,665

AIR CLEANING ATTACHMENT FOR VACUUM CLEANERS Filed July 26, 1954 Z3, INVENTOR 276/ I": 24 1: l fi W u ATTORNEY AIR CLEANING ATTACHMENT FOR VACUUM CLEANERS Louis A. Evans, Niles, Mich.

Application July 26, 1954, Serial No. 445,580

1 Claim. (Cl. 183-25) This invention relates to a novel air cleaning attachment for vacuum or suction cleaners and has for its primary object to provide a unit attached to the outlet of the air pump or suction blower unit of a vacuum cleaner or vacuum cleaner system into which the dirt laden air is discharged and by means of which the air is cleansed and thereafter released from the air cleaning unit while the entrapped dirt, separated from the air, is carried off to a sewer or to other disposal means.

A further object of the invention is to provide an air cleaning attachment of extremely simple construction which will effectively function to accomplish its intended result and which, due to its unique construction, will effectively cleanse the dirt laden air discharged from the blower and suction unit of a vacuum cleaner or cleaner system to thus eliminate the need for providing a bag for collecting the dirt and which requires periodic emptying and replacing.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the following description of the drawing, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view showing the air cleaner connected to the outlet of the blower suction unit of a vacuum cleaning system;

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view, partly in side elevation, of the air cleaning unit, and

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view thereof, taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

For the purpose of illustrating one application and use of the air cleaning unit, designated generally 5 and comprising the invention, a portion of a suction or vacuum cleaning system has been illustrated in Figure 1 and is designated generally 6. Said system portion 6 includes a blower and suction unit or air pump, designated generally 7, the housing only of which has been shown as the unit 7 constitutes no part of the present invention. The unit 7 has an inlet or suction conduit 8 connected to one end thereof and an outlet or pressure conduit 9 leading from its other end. The inlet or suction conduit 8 is shown connected to conduits or pipes P which may be permanently installed in a building and which may include a plurality of inlets opening into different rooms of a building to any one of which a suction hose may be connected which has a suction nozzle at its other end, not shown, such as is conventional in vacuum cleaners and vacuum cleaner systems. On the other hand, the outlet end of such a suction hose may be connected directly to the conduit 8 or to the inlet end of the unit 7.

The air cleaning unit 5 comprises an upper spray and air cleaning chamber, designated generally 10, which may be of any desired shape but which is preferably of substantially elliptical or ovoid shape with its longitudinal axis disposed vertically. The lower end of the chamber 10 is cut off to provide a relatively large outlet opening 11. The chamber 10 at its upper end has an externally flanged opening 12 through which the outlet end 13 of a atent water supply pipe 14 extends and in which said pipe end is secured. A nozzle or spray head 15 is secured to the outlet end 13 and is supported thereby in the upper part of the chamber 10. The nozzle or spray head 15 is preferably hemispherical in shape and has its hemispherical portion facing downwardly and is provided with suflicient discharge openings or apertures 16 to substantially fill the portion of the container 10 disposed below the spray head 15 with fine jets of water directed downwardly in all directions. The opposite end of the outlet conduit 9 is connected to the chamber 10 by means of an opening 17 therein and discharges into said chamber substantially intermediate of its ends. The chamber 10 is preferably provided with an annular flange 18 which projects outwardly therefrom and which is disposed between its open lower end and its intermediate portion and spaced a substantial distance from said open lower discharge end 11. I

The air cleaning unit 5 also includes a bottom receptacle 19 which is substantially bowl shaped or. hemispherical and which has an open upper end provided with an outturned flange 20 which bears against the underside of the flange 18 and which is detachably secured thereto by a plurality of headed fastenings 21, which extend through the flange 20 and are anchored in the flange 18. The receptacle 19 is provided with an externally flanged outlet opening 22 in the bottom thereof. Said receptacle 19 is spaced from the portion of the container 10, located below the flange 18 and its bottom part is located substantially beneath the outlet opening 11. The receptacle 19 is solid from around its outlet opening 22 upwardly to above the level of the opening 11, and thereabove is provided with a multiplicity of small openings or apertures 23, as seen in Figures 1 and 2. A drain pipe or conduit 24 has an upper inlet end secured in the flanged outlet opening 22 and a lower outlet end connected to a conduit or pipe 25 which may constitute either a sewer pipe or a conduit leading to a sewer pipe or to any other suitable drainage source. The drain pipe 24 preferably includes an elbow-shaped trap 26 having a cleanout port 27 normally closed by a plug 28.

The container 10 and receptacle 19 may be formed of any suitable material such as a lightweight metal, preferably aluminum, or may be formed of plastic or glass, in which case said parts may be transparent.

The size of the outlet apertures 16 of the spray head or nozzle 15 have been exaggerated for clarity. Actually, said apertures will be sufiiciently small so as to have a total combined size less than the cross sectional size of the supply pipe 14 or the drain pipe 24, so as to provide a restrictor for the pipe 14 to build up a pressure therein and so that the drain pipe 24 can readily carry off all of the water released from the spray head 15 without the water collecting in the receptacle 19.

Assuming that the air pump or blower-suction unit 7 is in operation and that dust laden air is being drawn into said unit through the inlet conduit 8 and is being expelled therefrom through the outlet conduit 9 into the container 10, water will be simultaneously supplied under pressure through the conduit 14 so that fine jets of water will be directed downwardly in all directions from the spray head 15. The supply of water through the conduit 14 may be manually controlled or may be controlled automatically whereby the water supply will be simultaneously with the operation of the unit 7. As the dust laden air is discharged from the conduit 9 into the container 10, the air will be thoroughly saturated with water and the moist and dust laden air and water will be discharged from the container 10 through its outlet opening 11 into the receptacle or trap 19. The air which has been cleansed by the water and substantially purified will escape upwardly into the upper part of the bowl or trap 19 from whence arsaeee said airwill escape to the-atmosphere through the apertures 23. The heavier 'dust laden water will be discharged from the container 10 directly into the solid bottomportion of the bowl or trap 19 from whence it will flow'by gravity ;through the outlet conduit 24 into the pipe or conduit 25 to be carried oil to the sewer or other drainage source. As previously stated, the capacity of the drainage pipe 24 is greater than the combined capacities of the apertures16 of the nozzle 15 so that the dirt laden water will not accumulate in the receptacle or trap 19. Additionally, the spray heador nozzle '15 will act as a restrictor to cause the water to back up in the conduit 14 to thus increase the pressure of the water discharged through the spray head. The perforations 16 may be of such a size as 'to produce a fine mist substantially filling the containerltlbelow said spray head to effectively separate all of the dust and dirt from the air entering the chamber'lfl before theairenters the receptacle or trap 19.

Various modifications and changes are'conternplated and may obviously be resorted to, without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as hereinafter defined bythe appended claim.

I claim as my invention:

An air cleaning unit comprising a container of substantially elliptical shape having its longitudinal axis disposed substantially vertical, said container having an openbottom of :a size substantiallytless than the cross sectionalsize of the intermediateportion of said container, a liquid supply pipe for supplying a liquid under pressure to said container'having an outlet end opening into a top portion of the container, a substantially hemispherical spray head connected to said outlet end and disposed within the upper portion of the container, an outlet conduit of a blower and suction unit of a-vacuum cleaner having a discharge end discharging transversely into said container adjacent the portion thereof of largest cross sectional size and between said nozzle and open bottom, a trap forming receptacle into which the lower portion of said container extends, said receptacle having a solid bottom portion extending upwardly to above the level of the open bottom of said container and having a perforated upper portiondisposed above the level of the lower end of said container, said trap receptacle having a drain outlet in the bottom thereof of a capacity greater than the openings of said spray head to. prevent accumulation of the liquid from the spray head therein, said spray head substantially filling the container with a fine mist for completely separating the dirt from the air during the passage of the liquid downwardly through the container, the restricted open bottom of said container providing means forconcentrating the air and'liquid'before discharge from the container to effect a maximum separation of the dirt from the air, and the purified air being released to theatmosphere fromsaid. trap receptacle through the perforations thereof above the open bottom of said container.

References Cited-in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Great Britain May 30. v1 

